How Five U.S. Cities Are Carving Out Paths to Circularity - Part TwoHow Five U.S. Cities Are Carving Out Paths to Circularity - Part Two

This two-part series launches with Phoenix, Arizona’s sustainability story, told by Amanda Jordan, circular economy project manager, Phoenix, Public Works.  Part two is a vibrant snapshot of the sustainability work of four more U.S. cities.

Arlene Karidis, Freelance writer

January 29, 2025

6 Min Read
Columbia, SC
City of Columbia, SC

As home to more than half the world’s population, cities can have meaningful impact on the march to zero waste. Recognizing that, more and more municipalities are bringing robust recycling and amazingly creative circularity initiatives to life.

This two-part series launches with Phoenix, Arizona’s sustainability story, told by Amanda Jordan, circular economy project manager, Phoenix, Public Works.  Part two is a vibrant snapshot of the sustainability work of four more U.S. cities.

One of Boston’s most popular programs is Zero Waste Drop-Off Days. Bostonians come out by the thousands to designated sites to unload heaps of materials that they can’t leave at the curb—car batteries, textiles, paint, fertilizer, propane tanks, transmission and brake fluid to name a few.

A free curbside food waste collection service, done in partnership with community composter From Garbage to Garden, reduces reliance on landfills and incinerators. Rather, icky scraps become resources, used to make nutrient-rich soil and renewable energy.

Recycling mattresses is mandated in Massachusetts, so this is another targeted stream. Residents can schedule curbside pickups for up to 10 mattresses a year.

While this service is promoted routinely, the college town doubles down on its messaging around student move-in weekend to capture the pile up of these ready-to-toss mattresses generated then.

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As in so many cities, contamination is a persistent problem. Plastic bags, bubble wrap, polystyrene, prescription bottles, and building materials commonly wind up in the blue bins when residents mistakenly think they belong there.

With that said, educating folks about recycling responsibly is a front and center priority.

“Our Waste Reduction Team goes out to speak to schools, community groups, and businesses about how to reduce contamination and assist in making Boston a zero waste city,” says Dennis Roache, superintendent of Waste Reduction, City of Boston.

Today, the recycling rate is about 25 percent. Boston is aiming to go higher.

Work to raise the bar includes 30 near- and long-term strategies to divert at least 80 percent of the city’s waste by 2035. Some key focuses are expanding both the compost work and education campaigns, combined with pumped up investments in access to recycling.

Columbia, South Carolina has taken big leaps since launching curbside recycling in 1991. The most transformative change in program history was swapping out 18-gallon bins for 96-gallon carts, bumping recoverables from 350 tons per month to what now averages 425 tons a month.

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Among flagship drop-off programs is e-waste collections, which divert 100 tons a year of electronics and batteries.  Though Columbia leverages drop-offs for multiple hard-to-recycle materials, from tires to large appliances.

An innovative private-public partnership provides businesses an outlet for spent cooking oil, which Green Energy Biofuel turns into renewable biodiesel.

“We call the program Southern Fried Fuels. Our restaurants and other local operations love that they can recycle their waste and at the same time help another local business,” says Samantha Yager, City of Columbia solid waste superintendent.

Through a Sierra Club campaign, Ready for 100 Renewable Energy, Columbia has pledged to achieve 100 percent clean and renewable energy by 2036.

And work is ongoing to engage the next generation of leaders. As part of that, the city facilitates Bloomberg Youth Climate Action projects, aiming to start a ground swell of local youth-led recycling and waste reduction initiatives. 

Trying to figure out how to simplify recycling is never-ending given challenges presented by variances in packaging and symbols— and the fact that recycling is hyper-localized. Accepted materials can differ just a town away.

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“We’ve simplified our information with our Waste Wizard with a search function enabling residents to learn what to do with very specific items.  We’ve also found a mixed media education approach to be successful. Not everyone will use an app or go to the website, so magnets and paper handouts are a great addition to our digital tools,” Yager says.

Further west, Boise, Idaho is putting much of its effort into stopping waste in the first place rather than pay to divert it later.

Through one of its newer programs, Reduce and Reuse, residents tap into a repair café where their textiles, electronic devices, and some other belongings are restored at no cost.

Boise also offers low-waste cooking classes in collaboration with The Idaho Foodbank and a Food Preservation series in collaboration with a University of Idaho extension program and local library.

Residents tap into weekly collection of yard waste and certain food scraps. And finished certified compost, processed by the city, is returned to them for free.

With a 97 percent participation rate this project is the city’s most popular diversion program. And it’s among the most impactful, recovering 30,000 tons of organics a year, says Peter McCullough, materials management and remediation division manager, City of Boise.

He credits the compost offering as instrumental to Boise’s improved residential recycling rates. Those rates have stood at 42 percent for four years now while prior to the program’s launch they hovered at 16 percent. 

The city engages the business community to be able to go further.  Boise now offers companies in-person business waste evaluations, which McCullough says are growing in popularity and proving effective. An awards program recently launched to further pump momentum, recognizing businesses that go the extra mile to recycle and reduce waste.

What’s new in Fort Collins, Colorado is a single-hauler residential collections program. This comes after years of running an open-market waste and recycling system.

The transition to this new model was informed by what came from extensive community engagement.

“Residents and businesses told us they wanted more composting and more recycling. We found through our analysis that a contracted hauler system would be the most cost-effective way to deliver those services,” says Caroline Mitchell, lead waste reduction and recycling specialist, City of Fort Collins.

Residents now have the choice to put their recycling to the curb weekly rather than biweekly. And their basic service includes seasonal yard waste collections at no extra cost; prior they could opt for green waste pick up for an additional fee.

“Early in our [vetting] process we worked with community members, haulers, and city council, and ultimately landed on a few goals: one big one was to achieve more affordable, consistent, predictable pricing,” Mitchell says.

The agreement establishes set pricing based on defined criteria, subject to no more than a once-yearly rate increase.

The new model follows years of transformations to Fort Collins’ waste and recycling strategy, in reach of the city’s zero waste goals—90 percent diversion by 2025 and 100 percent by 2030.

Initiatives range from grocer food scrap collections to a single-use plastic bags ban. And the city has offered rebates to multiunit households and businesses for diverting their recyclables and green waste.

Stay tuned; Waste360 will be looking into how other municipalities’ are reaching for zero waste—and which strategies seem to be working.

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About the Author

Arlene Karidis

Freelance writer, Waste360

Arlene Karidis has 30 years’ cumulative experience reporting on health and environmental topics for B2B and consumer publications of a global, national and/or regional reach, including Waste360, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, Baltimore Sun and lifestyle and parenting magazines. In between her assignments, Arlene does yoga, Pilates, takes long walks, and works her body in other ways that won’t bang up her somewhat challenged knees; drinks wine;  hangs with her family and other good friends and on really slow weekends, entertains herself watching her cat get happy on catnip and play with new toys.

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